Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Walking for Fitness is one of the most popular Corporate Wellness programs due primarily to it's ease of implementation. Walking groups can cater to a large number of employees and has the added benefit of needing little space and having a low overhead over other programs.

Employees enjoy the flexibility of being able to do these programs during their lunch or scheduled breaks without becoming too sweaty to return to work. It takes very little equipment or investment from the employee but still has significant benefits to their health.

Apart from the obvious health benefits there are other benefits to both employer and employee including socialization, improved communication, team building, employee motivation, and employee retention. Employees also have reduced stress levels and more energy.

The clocks are about to change for the annual Fall Back to winter time so it's important this week to consider what it might be like for your runs after the change.

For those of you currently running just before the sun comes up, you'll have the advantage of light (at least for a couple of weeks) but more importantly, those of you who run in the evening will find that your usual running time is suddenly much darker.

If you don't already have them, now is the time to buy some reflective clothing and think about lighting yourself up. Most good running stores carry both red and white lights for runners to attach to themselves. A blinking red light to attach to the back of your hat is a great idea. It will get you noticed by motorists especially as you cross side roads.

If you live in an area where you have to run in the road always run facing the oncoming traffic. If you see a driver not moving over to pass you, you have the option to jump into the ditch on the side of the road which is much better than them hitting you from behind and leaving your body in that same ditch!

Most importantly, just use common sense and be safe out there as you pound the pavement.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Once again a study is released which concludes that there is no correlation between the price of running shoes and their effectiveness at preventing injury. Many of you may have already heard me quoting earlier studies which came to the same conclusion.

So what is the secret to staying injury free?

There are several factors to this question including mileage, training intensity, rest intervals and training habits but nothing is more important than the actual technique of the runner. There are far too many programs out there that focus on covering a certain distance or running at a certain pace but not enough trainers are focusing on limiting the impact of running which we all know is the cause of almost all running related injuries.

If you've ever taken those expensive running shoes off and tried to run, you'll immediately find that you run very differently. No longer will you heel strike or step out in front of your centre of gravity, both would be too painful. What you will do is land in a more protective stance with your foot directly beneath you and much more on the ball of the foot.

There are a couple of major benefits to running this way when you put the shoes back on. Firstly it's your body's natural response to protect yourself from impact injuries. Secondly, as you are no longer landing on your heals, you are neutralizing the affect of pronation or supination (rolling of the foot throughout the motion of running). The benefit of having a neutral foot strike is that you are not putting additional stresses on your ankle, knee and hip joints by twisting to compensate for the jarring effect of a heal strike and again reducing your risk of injury.

At first it may seem like an unnatural way to run but once you work on increasing your cadence to compensate for the shorter stride, it will soon train your nervous system and become second nature.

The last concern is that by shortening your stride you will run slower but next time you're at a big race, watch the guys at the front. Most world class runners run at a cadence of 160-180 steps per minute. Their secret to running faster is to spend more time in the air and no-one has ever had an impact injury from being in the air.

Like my skydiving buddy once said, it's not the falling that will kill you, it's hitting the ground.

Friday, October 05, 2007

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto was awarded the National Quality Institute's NQI level 1 in recognition for their comitment to fostering a healthy workplace for their employees.

Hit The Road Running is proud to be a part of this success by offering it's services to SickKids staff through the wellness program. Hit The Road currently trains the SickKids Staff Running team and has provided several fitness related seminars.

The SickKids Staff Running team has been a huge success for the Wellness program with most classes being oversubscribed by employees and the program being recently expanded to accomodate more employees.

ABOUT HIT THE ROAD...RUNNINGHit The Road...Running provides training services for runners and corporate running teams. Founded in 2002 by Tony Denford, Hit The Road has expanded to provide fitness education, personal training, corporate wellness and fitness promotion services. For more details on Hit The Road please visit HitTheRoadRunning.com.

About Hit The Road...Running

Hit The Road was founded in 2004 by Tony Denford to provide fitness and running training to individuals, corporations and charities. Since that time, we have evolved to provide wellness programs and education to corporate clients to help them become the employers of choice while improving their bottom line and the lives of their employees.For more information on our services, please contact info@hittheroadrunning.com.